Trinity Sunday 26 May 2013

• I was taught at a rather young age that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” This was not said to downgrade education or curiosity. Actually, it is quite the contrary. It is the little bit of knowledge that becomes dangerous when it is mistaken for a lot of knowledge. Some people mistake a little knowledge for a complete understanding of a topic or even of all topics. A friend of mine once said that a person with a Doctorate knows more about less than any person alive. And I repeat that with all respect to people present who hold advanced degrees. It is an occupational hazard of education that the highest levels attain a supremely deep knowledge of a very narrow slice of the world's knowledge.
• Now, there can be a certain arrogance attached to knowledge and in particular with concepts that are hard to grasp. I say “can be” because it is not necessarily there. It seems that the truly knowledgeable person is often humbled by their knowledge when compared to what they know about and compared to what they don't yet know. But when that unfortunate arrogance is present, that “little knowledge” can become dangerous.
• Today is Trinity Sunday, the celebration of the nature of God. If any here were expecting me to explain the Holy Trinity in terms that could be easily understood, you can expect to be disappointed. The Trinity, the very nature of God, is beyond our understanding and our knowledge.
• The Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not a team of independent entities, like the Pep Boys – Manny, Moe, and Jack. Each is separate and they are forever united as one. How this is possible is beyond any of us.
• It appears that God has revealed enough of Godself for us to come to faith. We will never be able to completely comprehend the fullness of God, but we will be able to comprehend what is needed to trust in God. Enough has been shown to us for us to move on in our lives of faith and even to grow in faith.
• The Mystery of God remains and this mystery is not to be understood so much as to be experienced. We can all experience the Trinity, whether or not we make an attempt to understand the intimate nature of God. We experience this in other areas of our lives. We may not know the why or the how of Spring growth in the fields, but we can experience it. We might never be able to put into words our concept of the love we have for another person, but we certainly can -and do- experience it.
• The love we have for another person might be the closest we come to understanding and experiencing the life of God, the life of the Trinity. In the experience of love in our lives, we are united with the one we love, yet we remain separated and distinct from the other.
• Now, we do know a few things about God, because God has revealed these things to us. One of the most powerful things we know about our God is that relationship and community is at the heart of God. Any idea of the Trinity includes this. In fact, this might be all we know about God's own life. We know a lot of what God has done and we have been told why God has done those things in our world. And what little we know about God as God reflects this relationship and community within God. This is reflected even in the created world where all creation is interdependent, and for those who believe, in that way, nature itself reflects God.
• I think we know that the doctrine of the Trinity is not what draws people to Jesus Christ and that the doctrine of the Trinity is one of those things that requires both faith and a lot of thought in order to see anything in it. It will require more faith than thought.
• Is our salvation tied up in the Trinity? Absolutely! The Father has sent the Son to redeem us and save us from our sin and separation from God. The Spirit remains with us, supports us, and lead us to a deeper life in God. So not only our salvation, but our sanctification is Trinitarian in its nature.
• At this point, it would be worthwhile to read again the words of Paul when he wrote to the Church in Rome about justification, suffering, and the love of God.
• Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
• It is possible that the Trinity is the best way of seeing the life of God, a way we'll never understand, but a way we can all experience in our lives with God, with each other, and with all of God's creation.
• In that experience then, we'll know the true beauty of our God. That's something we all want, isn't it?

Pentecost Sunday -- 19 May 2013

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

• When ever we celebrate Pentecost, a number of things happen. We hear the reading from Acts and we wonder about the tongues of fire and the miraculous speaking in all languages; it is a reversal of the Tower of Babel. We listen to the strange, ancient names of places that still exist today, but under new names. We are told of the power of the Spirit of God to warm hearts and inspire people to things that seem incredible to us. Jesus' words speak of “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit” who will teach us and remind us of what Jesus has said.
• It may seem too much and it may seem far beyond us. The amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit leave us wondering where we fit in to that with our rather ordinary lives.
• We might want to remember that it is the seemingly mundane work of the Spirit that is the real work of the Spirit. The spectacular gifts – tongues, prophecy, miracles, important as they are – are extraordinary. The Spirit's real work is to teach and to remind, to grant peace and, in a most particular way, to make us God's children. As John says in his first letter, we are God's children... and not just in name.
• The Spirit comes to teach, to inspire, and ultimately, deepen our relationship with God. All those other “signs” are evidence of the person's relationship with God and they do not stand alone. Were a person to pursue those signs and gifts for themselves, they'd not only be seeking a lesser goal, but they'd be selling themselves short and doing the same to their relationship with God. They could also be in danger of a form of idolatry, placing the sign above what it points to and above the one who grants the sign.
• What I'm saying here is that possibly the Spirit's greatest gift is the intimate relationship with our God that we enjoy in Jesus. Christian history attests to this relational aspect of the Spirit. Our own Lutheran tradition holds firm to this. This quote is from Luther's Small Catechism, on the third article of the Creed:
• “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith…” (Luther's Small Catechism, explanation of the 3^rd article of the Creed)
• The work of the Spirit, then, goes far beyond the realm of inspiration and knowledge. In the passage from his letter to the Romans that we read this morning, Paul writes that it is the Spirit that makes us children of God: ...you have received a spirit of adoption. It is the Spirit that takes us beyond inspiration of thought and mind to the inspiration of our every action.
• For Christians and for the world in general, whether it is recognized or not, it is the Spirit that gives life. I believe that this is not always recognized; many people are willing and ready to see the Spirit working in the extraordinary ways. Sadly they miss the power that is seen and known in the daily lives in people.
• Paul says this: When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God... The Spirit tells us and tells the world that we are children of God.
• He uses a phrase that might seem strange to us. He says we cry out “Abba! Father!” Here an Aramaic word is used; it is the familiar form of “Father,” Abba. This word could probably be rendered in English as “Daddy.” It is a very intimate title, used by children in conversation with their father. Paul takes it as a common way for Christians to address God.
• These terms of endearment are not unusual in human relationships. I hear this sort of term all th time in relationships to express affection and closeness. We all know of names like “Oma”, “Opa”, “Pop-pop”, “Nana”, “Baba”, “Mommy”, “Daddy.” So, why not “Abba”? These titles show a very intimate relationship. The Spirit allows us to have this intimate relationship with our God.
• Now it may be hard to address God with a name like “Abba.” When we face our God in prayer, we are facing the creator and the sustainer of the entire universe. We are in communication with the one who knows everything there is to know about it – our inmost thoughts and feeling, our every action, our successes and our failures. Such an intimacy might come hard with someone who knows us better than we know ourselves. Yet God accepts us as we are. God has saved and redeemed us in Jesus Christ and draws us to Godself in and through the Spirit.
• The hardest part is for us to accept is that we are children of God and heirs with Christ, exactly as we are.
• All the gifts of the Spirit – tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, prophecy, even the baking of pies, as powerful and as necessary as they might be – all point to and support the real gift of the Spirit – the life of God within us that makes us what we really want to be, children of God.
• Pentecost then, the birthday of the Church, is all about relationship with God and in that, our relationship with each other. Although that might be for another day.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ

Easter VII - 12 May 2013

(More than a little tardy, but present nonetheless.)

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

• Once again, we find an amazing statement in the Gospels. Here in the Last Supper discourse found in John's Gospel, Jesus prays for his disciples, all his disciples - I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, It may not be something we think about often, but Jesus prays for us now and he prayed for us then. Of course, we weren't mentioned by name, but we are surely included in Jesus' prayer.
• Did you ever wonder why Jesus had to pray? If prayer is our way of being in contact with God, then contact with God is prayer, Jesus would be in contact with his Father and that contact would be prayer.
• The fact that Jesus prayed is attested to in all the Gospel accounts. He would go off by himself to a deserted place to pray, sometimes all night. He prayed with his disciples and he prayed for people he encountered anywhere.
• When Jesus walked the earth, he walked it as a Jewish man of his own time, so he would pray as a Jewish man of his time. He would have learned to pray at Joseph's knee and in the synagogue. His prayer would be based on the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture and on the prophets, and on the Book of Psalms in particular. In that book, there is a psalm for every occasion and for every mood or feeling. Jesus would have prayed in public,in the Sabbath service, and in private. His final prayer, on the cross at Calvary, quoted Psalm 22 as he cried out as one abandoned by God. Still, read the entire psalm and see how the mood changes by the final verse.
• We know that Jesus prayed and we have a good idea what his prayer would have been based on. That leaves us with a question: Is it possible for us to pray like Jesus?
• The answer is “Yes.” The more important question is this: Is it possible for us to pray like ourselves? Although this might sound strange or silly to you, the truth is many of us pray in someone else's words or with someone else's sense. Sometimes it's quite hard to pray as ourselves rather than kidding ourselves.
• So then, what exactly prayer is?
• In an old, old definition, prayer is “lifting the heart and mind to God.” This can be done in public or in private, with words we read, words me memorized, or with our own spontaneous words. It can even be done without words. (I'll say more about that later.)
• It can be petition, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, or even complaint. Petition asks. Adoration praises. Confession acknowledges sin and failure and asks for forgiveness. Thanksgiving acknowledges what God has done and gives thanks. There can be further types. I mentioned complaint. God already knows us and our needs, so prayers of complaint do more to allowing us to see and express ourselves than they might do to change God's mind.
• Prayer can be verbal (aloud) or mental (in our thoughts.) It also possible to pray by singing, by reading – an ancient Christian spiritual discipline, by meditating, and even by being silent. In one style of prayer, a simple verse of prayer is linked to the person's breathing so that as the habit is built, each breathe becomes a prayer.
• There is also a prayer called “the prayer of presence.” Often no words are used, but it is possible to involve words and even a constant conversation with God in it. This sort of prayer involves being quite before the face of God, being aware of the presence of God around and within. This is not easy because we are so easily distracted, but it is possible. I know some people who maintain a conversation with God while they drive, even talking out loud if they're driving alone. There are others who can sit quiet for a long time, content to be in the presence of God and to be aware of it.
• It is possible to pray in any mood, in sickness or health, in any circumstance, and with any words or no words at all. It is best to pray out of our own reality as we know it, because then we won't be fooling ourselves. I say it that way because there is no way to fool God.
• If we limit our prayer to what we need and want or to desperate praise for fear that God will be angry for us not praying enough, we are missing the real relationship God wishes us to have. If we feel our own words are not adequate and so we don't pray, we are not only missing that relationship, we might also be placing an idol between ourselves and God.
• So does our prayer change God or does our prayer change us? A very good question and one I cannot answer. I know for certain prayer changes us and I know of instances were prayers of intercession appear to have influenced the situation being prayed about. The Bible talks of God “repenting” of some punishment he was going to inflict – like the bargaining session between God and Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – but what this means is under discussion, probably from the moment it happened. Still the prayer of Jesus in the garden the night before his crucifixion includes both petition and surrender: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done. ”
• Yes, Jesus, as a man of his time and place, prayed and prayed faithfully. He spoke familiarly with his Father and his prayer was formed by his relationship with his Father. Jesus still prays for us, and remains our intercessor with the Father. On so many occasions spoken of in the Gospels, he give us the command to pray and he gives us models of how to pray, such as the prayer we call “The Lord's Prayer.” For us has Jesus' disciples, the relationship with have with our loving Father through Jesus in the Spirit is as necessary as the air around us and prayer – what ever sort of prayer fits you – is how we breathe it in.
• One last thing... In my first year in the monastery, I asked my superior how to pray. He gave me the best and simplest advice I could ever receive and I'm forever grateful to him for it. I asked “How do I pray?” and he said “Want to.”

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.